


You Only Live Twice

by Ariannette



Category: House M.D.
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Drama & Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-09-25 02:48:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9799352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariannette/pseuds/Ariannette
Summary: Set at the beginning of season 3. The ketamine treatment worked, and House is happy. However, on the road to his new life, obstacles are thrown his way, threatening his second chance at being happy.





	1. Preface

**You Only Live Twice**

 

There was a wind that swept past Lisa Cuddy, when the front door to her office was slammed open and shut. She didn't bother looking up because she already knew just who was disturbing her on that lovely Monday morning.

With a sigh, she thumbed through papers, speaking up before giving him a chance, "Whatever insane, unethical, experimental operation you're thinking about doing-  _no_."

"What? No, it's Monday morning. I came down for a quickie", House stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

She looked up for a second, about to roll her eyes but was struck for a second and reminded of the absent cane. It had been a whole three months since the Ketamine treatment, and watching him walk around without it, was still as pleasantly surprising as the first time she'd seen him back at Princeton.

Noting her silence, House tilted his head to the side and frowned, "Is my fly open or something?"

Cuddy's mouth parted slightly, trying to recover from her momentary shock and then she looked back down pretending to immerse herself in a paper, "What do you want House?"

"As Dean of Medicine, I want you to stop this outrageous injustice happening to your hospital."

That caught Cuddy's attention and she looked up again, taking notice of a letter he was holding between his fingers, with an annoyed expression.

He handed it to her, and she opened to read what it was about, laughing when she realized what he was so upset about.

"Did you know about this?" He asked, falling dramatically on to her couch.

Cuddy nodded, "I had Cameron respond to their request to have you give a speech at the Infectious Disease Summit this year. She's gotten pretty good at forging your signature, don't you think?"

House ran a hand through his untidy hair and shrugged, "Well I can't go. I've now planned on being busy that week, with- saving people and stuff."

Cuddy frowned, "House, you're going. It's your responsibility as a doctor to this hospital to do what you can to contribute. You appearances like these  fund your department and are good for the hospital."

He was silent, only paying attention to the rubber ball he kept bouncing off the ceiling. She couldn't help at take notice of how healthy he looked. He'd tanned slightly from his daily morning runs and every time he threw the ball into the air, she could see the outline of his biceps through the material of his blazer.

He turned, caught her staring at him and raised a brow, "I know you're hormonal and everything, but you do know I was kidding about that quickie right? Or not. I have about-fifteen minutes-"

Cuddy rolled her eyes, breathing deeply, "You're going and that's final."

"Do you really think it's wise to send your best doctor away? Your hospital will fall apart without  _moi_."

He was right to an extent. House was the best doctor she had, but the conference was only four days and House usually only had one patient a week.

"You're going. Your lackeys can take orders over the speaker phone while you're away- it won't be any different than being here."

He stared at her intently for a moment, without an expression, then blinked, "Ok."

She was struck by how easily he'd given in and thought maybe his behavior was due to the fact that now he was pain free. Cuddy watched as he got up from her couch, pocketed his bouncy ball and pulled out a lollipop, and started walking out of her office, when something else occurred to her.

"Oh- and just to make sure you don't get lost on your way to the Summit, I'll be coming along."

House stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around with a slowly growing smirk on his face, "If you wanted some alone time with me, all you have to do is say so- not make up some elaborate lie about a conference. So...where are we going?"

She looked at him intently and bit down on her lip attempting to suppress a smile, "Vegas."

House sucked on the red lollipop and half-laughed, half-guffawed, "You're right Dr Cuddy, I really should pull my weight around here- this conference thing sounds _totally_ important."

Just as she was about to say something, his beeper went off. He looked down to check it and sighed, while sucking on his lollipop again.

"What's wrong?" She asked, worried.

House turned to leave, "Looks like my patient got abducted by aliens again. They're probably probing him as we speak, and I'm being beckoned into an intergalactic search."

And without any further explanation, he was gone and Lisa Cuddy smiled.


	2. The Scientist

**You Only Live Twice**

Chapter 2

_The Scientist_

A carpet, a stupid bloody stained carpet was his new conquest. It made absolutely no sense. Then again, much of what House did often lacked in that sentiment.

Cuddy was attempting to get her mind off of anything House related. She grabbed a file from the nurses station and was about to walk back into her office when at that precise moment, the door from an exam room was opened by none other than the devil himself. He held it wide open for a blond teenage girl, who grinned at him as she walked out and curled a strand of her hair, "Bye Dr House, thank you for everything."

Her eyes traveled back to him and couldn't dismiss the cocky half-grin from his face. Or the way his tongue held to the side between his teeth like he occasionally did, when he was attempting to suppress something that made him happy.

Cuddy crossed her arms and waited until the girl was out of hearing range to speak up, "Who's that?"

House still had his eyes on the girl as she walked out of the clinic, and was caught off guard by Cuddy speaking. A moment later the smile evaporated from his face and he looked blankly at her.

"My new girlfriend."

"Since when do your refer to hookers as your girlfriends?"

He guffawed, "She's not a hooker, she's only seventeen."

"Do you enjoy inflicting pain on me everyday? Wait, that's a stupid question, scratch that. House, why would even joke about a seventeen year old?"

He mirrored her crossed arms and stood with his right arm resting against the wall, "You're ugly when your jealous."

There were about a hundred different reasons for Cuddy to be upset with him on a daily basis, and especially one at that very moment. Yet, as she exhaled and dropped her arms, she felt nothing of that sort, only anxiety when she remembered the other hundred important things she could be be doing, rather than having a pointless conversation with him.

"By all means, have fun with her. It's only statutory rape we're talking here. Right?"

If her comment bothered him, he didn't show it. His poker face had always been one of his qualities she found most frustrating after all, and he used it to his advantage.

"I want my carpet back."

Cuddy scoffed, "Oh sure, deflect."

He stood up straight, and there was a moment where his right hand went for an imaginary cane he no longer used. Both of them noticed his awkward movement, then attempted to play it off by tapping it against the wall.

"Not deflecting, I am having fun, and I need my carpet back so I can continue having fun in my office. You know, saving peoples lives, diagnosing, doctor-ly stuff."

She shook her head and scoffed, "It was stained with blood."

House's eyes widened, "Yeah, my blood, which makes the carpet part of me. I want it back. I want to be _buried_ with it."

She laughed and turned her head, walking back into her office, leaving him and his absurd requests in midair.

Only, he followed her, "What do you want? More clinic hours? I'll give you two more this week."

Of course he wouldn't leave it alone, of course he would follow her, to continue his adolescent pestering.

But his statement threw her off, and she turned around, sitting on the edge of her desk, "Are you...serious?"

It had to be a joke. From the beginning she knew there had to be some deep dark hidden agenda to his inordinate request, but as her eyes met his, something seemed off. There had not been many moments in her life where she'd witnessed House open and vulnerable. Mostly because he had fifty feet stone walls around him to keep everything and everyone at arms length. And, she could count on one hand exactly which moments those had been, their one mistaken night together, the infarction, Stacy leaving him, the night he'd asked her for a morphine injection, and now.

But his arctic blue eyes were wide, and suddenly, they couldn't meet hers anymore. The only time he did that was when he didn't want anyone to truly see inside him. Besides Wilson, Cuddy knew exclusively that she was the only other person that could do that. As she looked closely at him, she noted how he swallowed and his breathing was uneasy, it was nothing to be immediately concerned over, but strange nonetheless.

"Why is it so important?"

He shrugged, still not meeting her eyes, "Just is?"

Cuddy opened her mouth, but he cut her off.

"Please."

Whatever the reason behind his request now, she knew that this territory was off to her, and that she dare not ask him again. Their relationship bordered friendship and past an employer/employee relation, but it could help her here.

After a few silent awkward moments, she relented and took a deep breath, "Ok. I'll arrange it."

When he finally looked up at her, he gave a slight nod. It was a silent thank you and she knew that.

He turned to leave, but something in the back of her mind told her not to let him.

"House, wait."

He turned his head back once more, and raised an eyebrow in question.

"Do you have time later? To look over some more donors? Maybe over dinner?"

He blinked, "You're still doing that?"

Actually, she hadn't really thought about it. She did have a sperm donor. Why hadn't she told him the truth? ' _I'm concerned about you, I want to make sure you're ok._ ' The truth was, she knew him enough to know, he'd make up a lie to get out of it.

"Yes, I figure it will eventually take."

Cuddy could see him think about it for a moment, "Can't, already made plans."

"Of course-"

"No, seriously. Wilson and I are going bowling. But I will later this week, just let me know."

She nodded, and the next moment he was gone, while she was left feeling somewhere in between humiliation and relief.

xxxoxxxo

"So I heard you gave in to our man child's request."

Wilson was in line behind her in the cafeteria.

Cuddy turned to him and rolled her eyes, unable to erase the defeated smile off her face. Instead, she shrugged as she grabbed a ceaser salad and a fruit cup.

Wilson raised his eyebrows and brought a hand to his chest as he often did, "I think it's great. Better than endlessly making each other miserable. You proactively beat him, by giving him what he wants. It's genius."

After she had paid, and waited for Wilson so that they could sit down, she spoke up, "It wasn't like that at all. He...I don't know, he sort of pleaded actually."

"As in, begged? Or threatened you with changing your birth control to candy again?"

Before she responded, she looked around making sure no one would eavesdrop, "No, he was reasonable at first, said he would take on more clinic hours, which is-"

"-Bizarre?" Wilson had tilted his head to the side.

With a mouth full, Cuddy nodded, the swallowed, "I know. But then, he said please and it wasn't just any old sarcastic please. He said he needed it. It threw me off, maybe you should talk to him later when you guys go out. I think something might be going on."

Wilson greeted a young nurse that passed by, and boyishly grinned down for a moment, before reverting his attention back to Cuddy, "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said you should talk to him, when you guys go bowling See what's going on in that big brain of his."

Wilson frowned, "We aren't going bowling...He said he couldn't go because he had to go over his presentation with you. The one that he's going to be giving in Vegas."

Cuddy rolled her eyes, "He probably has a date planned with a hooker. Or that seventeen year old who's called the clinic fifteen times for him in the last two hours."

"No, he would tell us that. If he's lying to the both of us, that's a problem."

As she was about to respond, Foreman, Cameron and Chase were approaching the table.

"Have you guys seen House? He isn't answering our pages, and we got the results back from the biopsy you did." Cameron looked agitated.

Wilson nodded, "He's taking a nap in my office, trying to sleep off the nitrous he inhaled."

"A nitrous high only lasts a few minutes", Foreman muttered annoyingly.

Cuddy looked up from her plate, "What nitrous? Why was he inhaling anything?"

"We were attempting to do a lymph node biopsy on an autistic kid. No one could get him to calm down enough to sedate him. House was able to get him to inhale the nitrous, after he inhaled it. I believe he called it _eating the red berries_."

Cuddy shook her head, and stood up, leaving her tray, "Give me the results, I'll go over them with him."

xxxoxxxo

When she opened the door to Wilson's office, the first thing she noticed was the darkness.

"House?"

She could see the outline of his body on Wilson's couch, "House?"

As she got closer, she noted the earphones he had on, and the iPod in his left arm. She sighed and sat on the edge of the couch, next to his chest.

Cuddy placed a hand on his arm, and shook him slightly,"House?"

It was then that she noticed the lack if movement in his chest, which should have been rising, and falling. She shook him again, a little harder.

"House!"

After a few terrifying moments, he finally started stirring awake, and slowly opened his eyelids half way and looked at her, then closed them again.

"I don't want to go to school today mommy."

Cuddy rolled her eyes, "I have the test results for your patient."

House opened his eyes again, attempting to read the file she gave him, but failed, and gave it back to her, "What was it? Does he have cancer?"

"Why are you still high off of nitrous? Why did you get high off of it? You don't have an excuse to medicate yourself anymore."

She noted him take a deep breath and attempt to keep his eyes fully open. It was dark, but even then she noticed his glassy dilated pupils.

"I guess I'm just extremely lucky... The kid wouldn't have let them do it to him if he hadn't seen someone inhale it first. I had to take a hit for the team."

"Yes, of course, because you're such a self sacrificing person."

House clumsily sat up, "Yeah, I've been taking lessons from Wilson. So, do you have my patients results, or was that just a ploy to get frisky with me while I'm drugged up?"

"Turns out your lymph nodes were actually liver cells."

At this, House took the test results from her hand, "Hmm, I wonder what he had where his liver cells are supposed to be?"

While he was silently thinking, she remembered the conversation she'd had with Wilson earlier, and bit her lip, "Why did you lie and tell me you were going out with Wilson?"

He shrugged, "It's less embarrassing than telling you I'm having a foursome later on with three hookers."

Cuddy laughed, "That wouldn't embarrass you."

House stood up slowly, as if testing his balance to make sure his legs wouldn't give out on him. Cuddy stood up too, as he started to sway and caught him. His chest hit hers and when he looked into her eyes she thought maybe she was seeing something, but he just laughed instead.

"You're right, I wouldn't be embarrassed, and I would have told you the truth. But now the curiosity is going to kill you, isn't it?"

Then his smile and good humor banished completely, "Here's a hint, stop obsessing over me. I have a seventeen year old girlfriend now."

And like he'd done before, House left her without another word alone in the dark.


End file.
